The aims of this study were to describe normative values and seasonal variation of body composition in female cyclists comparing female road and track endurance cyclists, and to validate the use of anthropometry to monitor lean mass changes. Anthropometric profiles (seven site skinfolds) were measured over 16 years from 126 female cyclists. Lean mass index (LMI) was calculated as body weight × skinfolds(-x). The exponent (x) was calculated as the slope of the natural logarithm of body weight and skinfolds. Percentage changes in LMI were compared to lean mass changes measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in a subset of 25 road cyclists. Compared to sub-elite and elite cyclists, world class cyclists were (mean [95% CI]) 1.18 kg [0.46, 1.90] and 0.60 kg [0.05, 1.15] lighter and had skinfolds that were 7.4 mm [3.8, 11.0] and 4.6 mm [1.8, 7.4] lower, respectively. Body weight (0.41 kg [0.04, 0.77]) and skinfolds (4.0 mm [2.1, 6.0]) were higher in the off-season compared to the early-season. World class female road cyclists had lower body weight (6.04 kg [2.73, 9.35]) and skinfolds (11.5 mm [1.1, 21.9]) than track endurance cyclists. LMI (mean exponent 0.15 [0.13, 0.18]) explained 87% of the variance in DXA lean mass. In conclusion, higher performing female cyclists were lighter and leaner than their less successful peers, road cyclists were lighter and leaner than track endurance cyclists, and weight and skinfolds were lowest early in the season. LMI appears to be a reasonably valid tool for monitoring lean mass changes.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 20. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 July 2019.
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#2,357,819
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Outputs from European Journal of Sport Science
#464
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Outputs of similar age from European Journal of Sport Science
#8
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Altmetric has tracked 34,378,656 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 93rd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,202 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 20.6. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its peers.
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